fernandopartridge
Well-Known Member
Wouldn't say Stones, switched off completely for the Croatia winner
Wouldn't say Stones, switched off completely for the Croatia winnerBelgium leave the tournament with great credit (with the possible exception of Lukaku, who I do not have a very high opinion of).
The successes in our team for me were Pickford, Trippier, Stones, Maguire. That's it.
Belgium leave the tournament with great credit (with the possible exception of Lukaku, who I do not have a very high opinion of).
The successes in our team for me were Pickford, Trippier, Stones, Maguire. That's it.
I know and even tho Belgium Buns are my favourite i shall refuse to eat them...Well until the mrs makes them again....Hopefully TuesdayBit unfair of Belgium not to last us win when seeing as we let them win the last match.
People banging on about "potential" now we have lost.
What is the point of Phil Jones?
Does he have one?
Missing those couple of players that are top drawer Otis.....The Hazards/Modric of the world.Right, this may seem a little contentious, but in some ways maybe it's a good thing we didn't win the World Cup.
Even though we clearly aren't good enough, we still could have won it.
Had more than enough chances to kill Croatia off and with a bit of luck against France and France not quite on their game, we could have beaten them too.
We had chances today against Belgium.
Obviously it would be wonderful to have won the World Cup and there would have been much joy and dancing in the streets, but I think it would then be a false dawn.
I think we would believe (well many would anyway) that we are better than we actually are.
We have progressed somewhat, but I think this was a lesson we need to learn from.
Would have been over the moon if we had bagged the trophy, but maybe in some ways this is a good thing, because I think we would have very quickly got found out after.
Does that make sense?
We know exactly now what we need to do to keep moving in the right direction.
I'm sure they'd be loads of fans and pundits thinking we are better than we were if we had won.
As I said on a different thread, it's great to win against anyone, but the likes of the feeling when you can beat Germany 5-1 is all the greater.
We need to get to a place where we can take on Germany and Spain and France and Brazil in major tournaments and compete with them.
We clearly could have won the World Cup with just a bit of luck and would clearly have not been anywhere close to being the best team.
Nearest we've got to Modric is Jack Wilshere.Missing those couple of players that are top drawer Otis.....The Hazards/Modric of the world.
It has been a brilliant World Cup and chuffed to bits that we got so far. Just what the country needed.. My thoughts on England are..... Pickford. Wow totally surprised with him. Really thought he would be nervous as hell but played like a top keeper. Walker. Did ok apart from a few errors. Stones. Thought he was a stone, rock solid (soz ). Maguire. What can i say, hand on heart can't say i really new much about him before but 10/10. Young. Never rated him and apart from set pieces he's not the way forward. Trippier. Player of our tournament. Brilliant. Henderson. Good when against lesser sides, need better quality in that position and Dier is too slow and not clever enough. Lingard. Like him and he will get better same as Dele. Loftus-Cheek. Big strong lad but no real quality at international level, hope he proves me wrong. Kane. Started good but against better sides he struggled badly. Should of stayed near the D instead of chasing back all the time. Stirling. I do like players that run for every ball and i kept hoping he would come good but the last two games he's been woeful....Not international quality at all. Rashford. Loved him when he broke on to the scene, run, dribble and blast it into the net. Now he can't do any of those. Other players are not worth mentioning, average at best. Southgate. Should of changed tactics for the semi final and the jury's still out. Time will tell.Nearest we've got to Modric is Jack Wilshere.
Nowhere near as good, but I would have taken him if it was me.
Think we had a few pointless inclusions this time round.
I do also worry about Alexander-Arnold. Seen hom play a bit before and thought he looked a really good prospect, but his crossing for England was terrible. Still really young though, so there's time.
<snip>.
We have progressed somewhat, but I think this was a lesson we need to learn from.
<snip>
I wouldn't hold one mistake against Stones when the rest of the team all made multiple mistakes.Wouldn't say Stones, switched off completely for the Croatia winner
We have progressed.Have we really though?
I suggest you go to Youtube and take a look at some of our WC games from the past (90's maybe). We had way better players then in almost every position. The only 'progress' we've made is instead of good players we already knew about, we now have a few good players who were relatively unknown before. Can you honestly say we have anyone of the quality of Scholes, Shearer, Sheringham or Owen? Even players like Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham were better than this lot is ever going to be
I think in this tournament we benefited from the relative degrading of the opposing teams. Italy and Holland never even qualified, so that took away two teams that would normally beat us. Germany, Spain, and Argentina are way past their best. Add the fact that we were in a weak group and then had a relatively easy path to the semis. As soon as we came up against a top team, all the old failings became apparent.
Yet it was a golden chance to win it. But I don't expect that to happen again for a long, long time.
I rate Loftus-Cheek. The only thing that annoys me about him is his final ball. He had a reluctance to shoot when in great positions and/or failed to deliver the killer ball.It has been a brilliant World Cup and chuffed to bits that we got so far. Just what the country needed.. My thoughts on England are..... Pickford. Wow totally surprised with him. Really thought he would be nervous as hell but played like a top keeper. Walker. Did ok apart from a few errors. Stones. Thought he was a stone, rock solid (soz ). Maguire. What can i say, hand on heart can't say i really new much about him before but 10/10. Young. Never rated him and apart from set pieces he's not the way forward. Trippier. Player of our tournament. Brilliant. Henderson. Good when against lesser sides, need better quality in that position and Dier is too slow and not clever enough. Lingard. Like him and he will get better same as Dele. Loftus-Cheek. Big strong lad but no real quality at international level, hope he proves me wrong. Kane. Started good but against better sides he struggled badly. Should of stayed near the D instead of chasing back all the time. Stirling. I do like players that run for every ball and i kept hoping he would come good but the last two games he's been woeful....Not international quality at all. Rashford. Loved him when he broke on to the scene, run, dribble and blast it into the net. Now he can't do any of those. Other players are not worth mentioning, average at best. Southgate. Should of changed tactics for the semi final and the jury's still out. Time will tell.
What I mainly meant is we haven't progressed in producing good players.We have progressed.
We all know the players we have now aren't of the quality of the golden generation.
We were playing the ball out from defence in this competition with confidence. A sea change. Much happier to retain possession rather than just get it forwards too quickly.
We definitely looked a better side in the way we tried to play, unrestricted and with freedom (though we did seemingly go back into our bad ways a bit as the tournament wore on in those last couple of matches).
There are seeds there for sure. We are clearly short of a really good side by about 5 players though.
Hopefully the kids from the two junior World Cup wins will come up trumps. So annoying though when the big clubs snap up all the young players, but then keep splashing the cash on big money signings that then push those kids down the pecking order.What I mainly meant is we haven't progressed in producing good players.
The players the current team has are inferior in ability to past WC teams.
I agree, we changed the way we played compared to previous tournaments and Southgate has made the team play more as a unit rather than a collection of individuals.
But I don't think that will take us to the next level absent the influx of higher-quality players.
Yeah, but like I said, the big clubs like Chelsea are snapping them up, but then not getting game time as the club keeps splashing big cash on top players as they look for instant success.England are champions at under 21 under 19 and under 17 so we can't be that bad at producing players.
Yep the big clubs snap them up from lower league teams and stick them in their development teams on ludicrous amounts of money so they can piss it up the wall in their flash cars and top totty girlfriends and not get a chance to make it into the first team because of the so called star megabucks players in front of them so they drift out the game disillusionedYeah, but like I said, the big clubs like Chelsea are snapping them up, but then not getting game time as the club keeps splashing big cash on top players as they look for instant success.
Certainly not overawed by the occasionGood start from Croatia, no hangover from having three lots of extra time yet.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?